Friday, October 15, 2010

Niagara River reflections

I love to walk by the Niagara River. Yesterday, as I was headed to the Holiday Inn to go swimming, I looked intently at the water, which reflected the vast blueness of the sky. It was a delight to watch the ducks paddling around in the water. It's fun to watch them dive headfirst into the water, with their little backsides wobbling in the air, as if they were straight out of the comics. I saw the geese parading along the shoreline. I saw people, too, riding on their bicycles, walking their dogs, mowing their laws, checking their mail. It's a real gift, these sunny October days. We know that the air is just going to get colder and that only the stubborn walkers, such as I, will be left to walk along the shores of the river and wonder what's beneath all of that ice.

So. The Niagara River. It is beautiful, powerful, and the stuff of legend. When I walk in Buckhorn Island State Park, there is a spot from which I can see the mist that rises from Niagara Falls. It is an amazing thing to see
this gigantic mist rising from across the river. Niagara Falls, of course, is even more awe-inspiring up close. Niagara Falls has its share of stories and legends. There have been many stories of people climbing into barrels and going over the falls. I suppose that would be an exciting way to spend an afternoon although just the thought of it is enough to inspire feelings of motion sickness in me!
One of these legends about Niagara Falls concerns a young maid of the Neuter tribe, Lelawalo. She was the chief's daughter, and she was sacrificed by being placed in a canoe filled with food, which was then sent over the falls.To keep her from smashing into the rocks, one of the sons of a god caught her in his arms. In her new world beneath the falls, the maiden was told by one of the sons of a god that a malevolent snake lived in this watery world and that he was going to poison all of the drinking water. The people would keel over and die! Eventually, men killed the snake with spears. The snake died in the shape of a horseshoe. Apparently, that is the story behind the Horseshoe Falls being in that particular shape.
You're probably wondering why I mentioned this legend.

Well, I'm mentioning it because of the story about a malevolent snake, that became poisonous and threatened to poison all of the drinking water. Many years later, that poisonous snake must have appeared in human form or in the form of industry. Until fairly recently, the river was full of toxic substances, dumped, not by snakes, but by chemical companies and other industries. The dangerous compounds in the river included PCBs, mercury, dioxin, arsenic, lead, and pesticides. It was a pretty toxic soup. The Niagara River connects Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, so toxins travel through those bodies of water, eventually to the Atlantic Ocean. Lake Erie, for sure, has had its own environmental problems as well. At one point, it is alleged that Lake Erie caught on fire. There is some dispute about that. Some people say that the lake caught on fire, while other people say, no, it was just some junk in the lake that caught on fire. Still. Stuff doesn't usually catch on fire when it's floating in water so there must have been something flammable (or inflammable??? why do they mean the same thing???) in the water that shouldn't have been in there.

I've been reading about efforts to clean up the Niagara River. Back in 1987, the United States and Canada worked together on a cooperative transboundary management plan to reduce the emissions of toxic waste into the Niagara River. And, indeed, the amount of contaminants in the river has been lessening to the point that there is fish in the river once again. These efforts at cleaning the river continue to this day. When I walk through Buckhorn Island State Park, I pass people with fishing rods, hoping to catch something in the river. Sometimes, I walk close enough to the water to see schools of tiny fish swimming in the river. I'm not sure that I would eat the fish that came out of the Niagara River but you never know. Perhaps it is edible. I'd like to think that is so. I'd like to think that we have come a long ways since the days when owners of chemical companies located along Buffalo Avenue in Niagara Falls felt that it was OK to build pipelines and dump untreated waste directly into the river. I'd like to think that the latter-day malevolent snake of the river has been tamed and that it is no longer poisoning the water because water is supposed to maintain life, not to bring about death.

Soon it will be winter. There will be ice in the river and ice chunks going over the falls. It will be beautiful. And, I hope that it will be, if not this year, then at some point in the future, safe and not contaminated with that malevolent snake's poisons.

Note: This post is part of Church World Service's blog action day. Check it out at: Blog Action Day

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About Me

Alice is a freelance writer/photographer/artist/master gardener. She is currently participating in a 52 week photography challenge, organized by Dogwood Photography. You can follow alice on twitter; her handle is @alicesbears